Vietnam is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil and Commercial Matters. All requests for obtaining evidence, including requests to take voluntary depositions, must be submitted via the letters rogatory process. Please visit our Country Information page for further information about international judicial assistance.
Vietnam has two systems, one for civil cases and one for criminal cases. In both civil and criminal cases, the requestor will send a letters rogatory request to the Department of State in Washington, D.C., which will forward the request to the Embassy. The Embassy must then send the letters rogatory request to the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In civil cases, the Consular Department will then forward the request to the Ministry of Justice; in criminal cases, the Consular Department will forward the request to the Supreme People’s Procuracy. These ministries then forward the request to the appropriate Court for action. The deposition report will subsequently be sent to the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Public Security and the Supreme People’s Procuracy, as appropriate. These offices will report back to the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which, in turn, forwards the information to the Embassy. The Embassy will transmit the response to the Department of State in Washington, which will send the reply to the requestor.